Moose Milligan

That's somewhat fair, but I don't see many great defensive center fielders who have average speed or below. Yes, you need to be able to get a good jump and take good routes to balls but that will only get a centerfielder so far. They need to be able to cover some ground. They need to be able to get to a ball in the gaps to cut it off or to be able to make a throw to hold a runner at first. Cedric isn't about to get better at covering ground. Any improvements he can make in CF in regards to getting better jumps and reads on balls and taking better routes to ball is going to be offset by the fact that his sprint speed is declining. Statcast shows us that his sprint speed from last year was ranked in the 80th percentile which is still strong. His outfielder jump was in the 77th percentile. But his sprint speed was down from an 86 the year before. His outfielder jump is was 73 so he actually got better on his jumps. But his sprint speed has declined from 2020 when it was in the 92nd percentile. Like it or not, he's slowing down. The good news is that somehow his Outs Above Average has hovered in the 96th percentile all these years. But you can't tell me that his declining sprint speed is going to make playing a great CF easier for him.

If they're going to trade Mullins, the time is now. Or it was this past offseason. I'm not sure what "significant" trade value entails...but in my mind, when I see posters say something like that, I picture them thinking they're at a Capital Grille with a menu and picking any 3 top 10 prospects from someone's system. I'm not sure how accurate that is but I'm not sure how much trade value Mullins actually has because we all really like Mullins. Flipping the scenario, what would be willing to give from our system if we were looking to trade for Cedric Mullins if we had a need in CF? At first blush, my initial reaction to that question is "not much." He's 28 and he's not getting any faster and a lot of his value is tied to his speed. That all said, I agree with @clapdiddyif he's moved to LF he loses a lot of value. It's my hope that he performs closer to his 2021 levels and we're able to trade him because Cowser is having a great season and others in the system are, too.

I'd love to understand the strategy for giving O'Hearn and his career -2.5 WAR and 83 OPS+ a chance. With robust stats like that, the fact that he's a lefty is like ignoring that you're going to Cici's for pizza. Yeah, it's pizza and pizza is hard to mess up but damn they're trying their bestest to do it. You're going to walk away unfulfilled, hating your life and having to reach for a giant bottle of Pepto as you race to the toilet later on. That's the analogy I came up for the fact that Ryan O'Hearn is a lefty. If Elias would like to battle me on this, he can DM me.

Sunscreen is your excuse, eh?

The good news is that it's pretty wide open. Kjerstad, with his delayed start, can still make an impact compared to the rest. I didn't see Torkelson having such a slow start to his career or Austin Martin being such a non-factor. But the question posed says more about this group than it does about Kjerstad's possible turnaround.

I thought a Baltimore blonde involved blue eye shadow, a pack of Virginia Slims and a lower back tattoo.

He’s also willing to work a count and take a walk. 88 point difference between his batting average and on base percentage last year. The notion that every guy on the bench needs to hit for power is silly and exhausting. His doubles power is fine, as you noted.

Ok.

Will have to tip our collective hats to Manfred for getting this correct. I'm betting that 2:30 game time holds for the regular season, give or take 5 minutes either way. That said, I still think they should do away with the pitch clock for the 9th and extra innings. I'm really excited about these changes though, this should be a much better brand of baseball.

I sort of agree. I think everyone will still call it Camden Yards. Or refer to it online as OPACY. But I would bet that anyone who purchases the naming rights would completely axe Camden Yards. It's not going to be Rocket Mortgage Field at Camden Yards, it'll just be Rocket Mortgage Field...they wouldn't want to give anyone a way to shorten it to just Camden Yards, even though they know an older contingent of fan (us) is still calling it that. It would be more aimed at newer fans who don't know any better and would call it Rocket Mortgage Field.

It's not a straw man, but maybe it's not well articulated. Kids these days (yeah, I said it) have their faces stuck in their phones. And on top of that, they have the attention span of a gnat. A slow game like baseball doesn't grab their attention. The point is that kids have more options than ever for things to grab their attention. I'm 41, so we're about the same age...you and I didn't have NEARLY the amount of options for entertainment back when we were growing up that kids do today. As a result, baseball is threatened to get lost in the shuffle behind more action oriented ball sports like football and basketball and sports that have increased in popularity over the years like lacrosse and soccer, not to mention things like MMA that didn't exist 25 years ago. And on top of that, every video game console, website, streaming platform, etc. There's just so many more options for kids in general. So when they say "instant gratification" I think it's a bit of a misnomer. But there is a certain amount of truth to it, too. Growing up, I couldn't have ever imagined having every song ever at my fingertips for 15 bucks a month. Couldn't imagine having practically every movie ever at the click of a button. So yes, these kids do have instant gratification baked into how they're growing up and they don't even know it. Like, they don't even have to leave the house for anything. Groceries? Delivered. Fast food? Delivered. At the absolute worst Amazon will deliver it TOMORROW. But I digress. I hope my kid just likes "a" sport. I'm not even particular for which one, I'd even settle for hockey.

Not sure if you're serious about me being serious. It shouldn't be a competition. I know I'm right. Vavra has been day to day and not on the IL. As I said, this shouldn't be a competition. Vavra's positional flexibility and overall athleticism should make him the last man standing. I wouldn't consider a Vavra a guy who should play every day but he can be placed around the infield and he has an idea of what to do in the batter's box. If you're worried about him getting hurt, the fact that he's not being looked at a full time starter should offset some of that. O'Hearn isn't a savior, he's just not a good player. He hasn't done anything of note since 2019 and even then he wasn't great. Over the past three years his OPS+ is a whopping 70 with a .622 OPS. Rougned Odor is arguably a bigger offensive threat.

This shouldn't be a contest.

Not mad at it.

I'm still calling it Camden Yards. Such a contrarian! SG, always living on the edge with hot sports takes.

Nope, but that's a good plan. There are a few more left, I might do that at lunch.

The blueberry muffin I had for breakfast this morning was pretty tasty.

Yeah, this isn't really relevant. Sorry Paul and Morty ruined your day, WC but c'mon. If this disgusts you so much that you need to take a break, I can't lie, I'm a little worried for your soul.

That's true, I forgot about that. But living in Northern VA, we didn't get the local Baltimore stations so getting a game on HTS was a sort of a treat.

I thought all RSNs blacked out their games. I know for MLB.TV you can't watch the local games in your market. Eh, they screw up from time to time, that's true...but it's not enough for me to really hate MASN, especially when you point out that they're underfunded and under supported. Are they great? No. But they're adequate enough. I mean, I remember a time where HTS had a sign out in centerfield at Memorial Stadium bragging that you could catch something like 90 games on their network. We've come a long way.

Well, yeah it's easy to hate on MASN. But as far as an RSN, I think they're okay.

If he doesn't make the team out of ST, that's stupid. Granted, the OD rosterbation is weird and stupid in and of itself, too. They start shuffling players back and forth, like, after the first or second series is over. So the stupidity of him possibly not making the team out of ST is mitigated by the fact that he'll probably be called up shortly. That said, every time this thread is bumped, I freak out a little bit that he tweaked his back.

I don't know why you'd think this is a good thing.

Yes. Man, Valentine’s Day is a little late for you this year isn’t it?

He was terrible, too.